Chapter 30 – Dopamine Addict…

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Right after the training simulation ended.

A letter from the commander arrived.

On the letter, the following was written in a neat handwriting:

[Heydam Goodman’s participation in the subjugation battle is permitted.]

‘Judging by how dry the ink is, it seems he wrote it in advance?’

It seems the commander also thought I would pass the test.

It seemed he didn’t fail to believe the confession of being a regressor, but rather wanted to check my abilities.

While wrapping up after the training ended, the cadets couldn’t even meet my eyes, unlike earlier.

Though Plato alone was staring at me with a passionate gaze.

‘Plato’s strategy itself was not bad.’

Since it meant he at least accurately predicted that I would sneak into their camp.

If it had been an ordinary ten-year-old child, they would have been caught.

‘The problem was that I was a player.’

This training ground is a place even more familiar to me than to the cadets.

Because while conquering the Cola zone in the game, I had completely remodeled this training ground.

‘What else would cadets who are only just ahead of graduating from the military academy have tried in this training ground besides mock combat?’

In other words, their level of understanding of this training ground is fundamentally different from mine.

And in the first place, I had no intention of winning by planting a flag in the enemy camp.

Because while I left my post, the possibility of the flag being planted in my camp was high.

So to speak, my only option was the annihilation route…

‘But to think that even those guys had no intention of planting the flag.’

Thanks to that misjudgment, Plato stayed in the back, so their combat power was reduced and they were much easier to handle.

Actually, since I had memorized all the NPCs’ habits, weaknesses, and combat patterns, there was no way I would lose even in a head-on clash, but Plato alone was an NPC to be cautious of.

Because despite being a soldier, this guy is a troublemaker who follows his beliefs yet has outstanding abilities, a potential coup bomb-like existence, so there was no telling where he might bounce.

Actually, since Meursault, who was Plato’s superior counterpart, was present, I intended to use Plato just as a discardable card, but.

Seeing him predict my route and evade the ambush by instinct in person, I judged that he was worth recruiting.

Therefore, I chose a head-on confrontation with Plato, relying on the sandbags I usually wore for training, but I used the 3B strategy on the other cadets.

‘The 3B strategy: Cowardly, Mean, and Heartless.’

Anyway, it was a truly enjoyable time.

Conquering the military academy was a strategy used only in the very early stages, and since no one used it anymore, I had no reason to encounter Plato during his cadet days, but.

Somehow it feels like returning to my roots, which is fulfilling.

I hope it was a good lesson for the cadets as well.

* * *

After the training simulation ended with Heydam’s victory.

Meursault summoned the cadets who participated in the training with Heydam one by one and demanded they deliver an honest evaluation of Heydam.

The cadets’ evaluations of Heydam were divided into extreme opposites.

Among the cadets caught by Heydam’s ambush, one cadet shuddered and evaluated as follows:

“I have never seen such a cowardly ten-year-old child!”

At those words, Meursault frowned slightly.

“Isn’t an ambush originally supposed to be done cowardly?”

“Hiding and then ambushing us, that much is fine. No, rather, I was impressed when the two cadets at the very back were caught in the first ambush and helplessly hit by the paint gun. However.”

“However?”

“Do you know what Heydam-nim did after that?”

“What did he do to make you say that?”

“He lowered his gun.”

“Hmm?”

“Then he approached us, saying that His Excellency the Commander actually told him to deliver something secretly.”

“Ah…”

“Yes, it was naturally a trick to lower our guard. As soon as we got close, he fired wildly.”

“Oh my.”

“I survived until the end and ran away, but Heydam-nim, who was chasing me, fell with a loud noise.”

“Heydam-nim… fell? By any chance, was that…”

“Yes, that was also acting. As soon as I approached, suddenly frightened that he might have been hurt, he stabbed me.”

“Ugh.”

“How can he utilize a cadet’s good heart? For a child who just turned ten to be so cowardly! I am afraid of the future!”

Meursault thought that if they were to discuss cowardice, they would be blamed first for putting eight cadets about to graduate into mock combat with a single ten-year-old child, but he did not speak it aloud.

Another cadet evaluated as follows:

“He was like an experienced soldier.”

“Hmm?”

Since it was a completely different evaluation from the previous cadet, Meursault asked back with interest.

“Why did you think so?”

“It is so because he circled around to approach from the rear upon seeing us come, but also because he misled the enemy with the word that he had something to deliver after the ambush. Since he attacked from the rear, if he had just left us, the cadets at the very front would have run away and hidden their bodies in the terrain and obstacles. Wouldn’t Heydam-nim, whose position was already exposed, be at a disadvantage in that case? Therefore, he deceived and held us so we couldn’t run away further. That aspect… made him seem like an experienced soldier.”

The cadet who spoke up to that point seemed to hesitate for a moment whether to say the next words, and then soon added softly:

“It is a strange thing to say, but Heydam-nim looked familiar with that training ground, as if he had already done mock combat multiple times. No… to say familiar is insufficient. It looked cozy.”

“Hmm.”

Although several cadets seemed to have nothing but ill feelings left due to the shame of being played by a ten-year-old in the training, the number of cadets who calmly delivered an accurate evaluation of Heydam like this cadet was also not small.

Actually, Meursault also understood the hearts of the cadets who delivered harsh criticisms of Heydam.

‘Because Heydam basically has a tendency to look down on people…’

Should I say he doesn’t try to look good to others.

Meursault thought that while one might feel fear toward Heydam at the first meeting, it would be difficult to have goodwill.

Of course, there was also a cadet who delivered a completely absurd evaluation.

None other than General Anton’s son, Plato.

“Heydam-nim is a god.”

‘What the hell is this guy?’

Of course, the only one who delivered such an absurd evaluation was Plato, who clashed with Heydam until the very end.

Meursault wrote a comprehensive evaluation including Plato’s and submitted the report to the commander.

Until then, he hadn’t thought there would be another intention in suddenly making Heydam do the training simulation and compile and report the evaluation materials.

Meursault, who wondered if he was going to brag about his child somewhere, was shocked by the commander’s bombshell announcement after reading the whole report.

“I entrust the operation of this subjugation battle to Heydam.”

“What?!”

* * *

This man, the commander, is also out of his mind.

“Does one normally appoint a practical operation officer just because they crushed some cadets in a training simulation? Really, Father.”

“This is not the time to say this and that about His Excellency.”

Meursault spoke, looking at me with an indescribably troubled face.

“Why didn’t Heydam-nim refuse?”

“Well, since he is offering to entrust it, why bother refusing.”

Naturally, if it were announced that it was entrusted to a ten-year-old, even the pro-Hayden faction executives would object.

On the surface, the operations officer this time is Major General Meursault.

That is why Meursault is together with me now.

After telling other people that they sent me in to look at Meursault and learn.

In other words, even if we ruin it with the strategy I planned, the one getting criticized is Meursault.

“Sigh…”

Meursault stood pressing his forehead for a moment and then asked me.

“Are you confident?”

“Confident?”

“Mock training and actual combat are completely different. In the first place, mock training is interpersonal training, and actual combat is war with monsters as enemies. Although Heydam-nim killed a hippo-pig in a single shot, other soldiers cannot do that. That is also the part I worry about most.”

“Are you worried I will plan the strategy thinking other people can do as well as me?”

“You know it well.”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“Could it be that you will plan the strategy suited to other people’s levels? Heydam-nim?”

What? What does this guy think of me?

“There’s no way. Naturally, I will only take guys who suit my level.”

“…It is an answer so exactly as I thought that I have nothing to say. However…”

Meursault muttered, looking down at the subjugation battle route I had set.

“What the cadets said is true. You look excessively familiar with it.”

“Do I?”

“Yes. Moreover, this route… is a route that can absolutely never be known just by going outside the zone a few times for hunting. You grasped it just by looking at the map?”

I have no intention of telling Meursault that I am a regressor yet.

There is nothing good about more people thinking I am a regressor.

Deceiving the commander was also done after making a really big decision.

Because if another player accuses me to the commander later that I am a player, it will be discovered in an instant.

Revealing to the commander that I am a player… will be after an irreversible bond has been built.

Or after my power has grown so large that even the commander cannot do anything about it.

At that moment, the ring grew hot.

As if protesting against deceiving the commander.

‘Stay quiet. It’s all done to save the commander.’

I muttered that in my mind reflexively, and the ring’s heat cooled rapidly as if it understood.

‘Just what on earth is the identity of this ring?’

For now, it would be better to make up an excuse to Meursault.

I spoke with a tone intentionally telling him not to make a fuss over nothing.

“Meursault, you were excessively surprised even by me memorizing people’s names at once. Is it really something to be that surprised about just because I know how to read a map a bit?”

“However…”

“If I couldn’t even do this much, Father wouldn’t have entrusted the operation to me either.”

“Ugh…”

Subjugation battle.

Various alien monsters live outside the zone.

When going out to subjugate once, it would be nice to drive the monsters out as far as possible, but doing so would cause the driven-out monsters to head toward other zones.

If that happens, the people of that zone will flee to our zone or come targeting our zone, so subjugations always advance only up to a reasonable line and return.

Well, because there is a barrier between zones, players are prevented from crossing over in the first place, but.

At any rate, just knowing the fact that they periodically come out for subjugation makes the alien monsters not approach near the zone carelessly.

While small and medium-sized monsters such as staghorn rabbits and hippo-pigs are occasionally spared even if they catch the eye, large monsters are killed on sight, so large monsters inhabit places as far away from the zone as possible.

Unlike small and medium-sized monsters that hover targeting corpses or byproducts coming out of the zone, large monsters also eat fellow monsters, so they do not need to come near the zone.

The time these large monsters come near the zone is when they run out of food.

This is exactly the reason we periodically go out for subjugation.

Large monsters driven far from the zone have no choice but to face limits in hunting prey, and because of this, they come near the zone.

Why do they come at the point when it snows on the mountaintop?

Because alien monsters are strong against cold and weak against heat.

When the weather gets warm, monsters reduce their activities to the limit and stay stuck in the snow.

Because of this, the population of visible prey decreases, and large monsters finding it hard to obtain food approach near the zone.

In other words, a subjugation battle is combat with large monsters.

“Until now, it was basically a way of first knocking down the monster, then finding and destroying the gem, right?”

“That is correct.”

“It would be easier to just destroy the gem. To catch a large monster, you have to use that much resources. The edible meat decreases, too.”

“You only watched small and medium-sized monsters, so you do not know well. In the first place, that thing called a gem has a different location for each monster. It is just that small and medium-sized monsters have small bodies so their locations do not change much; large monsters have different gem locations even if they are of the same species.”

Listening to Meursault’s words, I chuckled.

“Do you think I wouldn’t know that?”

“Even though you know, to say that we only need to destroy the gem…”

“No, I really know. The location of the gem.”

“Pardon?”

“The core of this operation will be high efficiency.”

What would be the reason players put the monsters added in the Second Apocalypse on the back burner and engage in survival among themselves?

It is because they know the strategy for the gem, which is the core of the monster.

Although it is said that gems have different locations, there existed patterns to distinguish whether it is on the left or the right, inside the body, or outside the body.

For example, if there is a wound on the monster’s body, the gem is located on the opposite side.

If there are horns on the monster’s body, the gem is embedded near those horns.

If one is to find a commonality, it is that such patterns arose to protect the gem, which is the vital point.

Up to this point, it is possible to share with other NPCs, but.

Although there is also a method to find out the location of the gem more accurately, it cannot be shared.

It is not for the reason that only players must know.

Because it is a sensory domain.

Accumulation of experience coming from multiple playthroughs.

Just by looking at the monster’s cry and approaching gait, the angle comes out, ‘Ah, that guy is one with the gem attached to its belly button.’

This is something like intuition due to experiences spanning multiple times which is difficult to explain, an ability only multiple-playthrough players can possess.

And I was the player with the most outstanding intuition.

This ability also played a part in being able to tame the flying monsters appearing in the Second Apocalypse.

Although not as outstanding as me, other veteran players of other zones would also be surviving utilizing this intuition.

…Except for the dentist gentleman of the Candy zone, a newbie playing the game for the first time, let alone multiple playthroughs.

‘Come to think of it, is everyone alive?’

Although T-Bastard was originally a fellow who answered only when he felt like it, the other players were too quiet, way too quiet.

Opening the chat window while thinking so, I ended up flinching in surprise.

‘What?’

In the public chat window, new messages were piled up.

‘Why didn’t I know chat messages were coming?’

Checking the settings while thinking so, the message notification was OFF.

I felt like I turned it off because it was annoying to have chat messages pop up right in front of my eyes whenever they came.

I opened the chat window and checked the most recently arrived message.

[SsapPossible: Is there two Dopamine Addicts then?]

…What is this about again?